Legislators prepare for a comfortable retirement<\/p>\n
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Instead of pondering ways to help the country out of current
\nsocial and economic crisis, Indonesian legislators are designing
\na proposal to restructure their salaries so that they can receive
\nhigher pension payments.<\/p>\n
They are proposing to transform certain components of their
\nallowances into their basic salary so that they would get more
\npension money when they are no longer legislators in 2004.<\/p>\n
Head of the House of Representatives' (DPR) Household Affairs
\nBody Asep R. Sudjana said that the body was considering a
\nproposal to raise legislators' basic salary from Rp 4.2 million
\nper month to Rp 6 million per month.<\/p>\n
Asep asserted that the amount of take-home pay would be the
\nsame, and the only change was to the salary structure.<\/p>\n
"The 30 percent increase will be taken from other allowances,"
\nAsep told reporters at his office on Monday.<\/p>\n
Currently, legislators' take-home pay totals Rp 11.8 million
\nper month, consisting of Rp 4.2 million in basic salary and Rp
\n7.6 million in allowances.<\/p>\n
Asep, however, conceded that the change of the salary
\nstructure would raise the pension payments to be received by
\nlegislators.<\/p>\n
He explained that after five years in office at the House of
\nRepresentatives, legislators would receive 60 percent of their
\nbasic salary when they retired.<\/p>\n
Despite Indonesia still being in economic difficulties, Asep
\nrejected the accusation that the 30 percent increase was not
\njustifiable.<\/p>\n
"Should the increase reach 200 percent, as alleged by the
\npublic recently, that is really not justifiable," said Asep, a
\nlegislator from the former ruling party Golkar Party.<\/p>\n
According to Asep, the plan to change the salary structure was
\nnot final since it was still only a proposal.<\/p>\n
According to the guidelines, if a proposal is finally agreed
\nto by the Household Affairs Body, it would then file the proposal
\nwith the DPR's Budget Committee, which would convey the proposal
\nto the government.<\/p>\n
The government will later include the proposal in the
\namendment of the state budget (APBN), and the amendment will then
\nbe filed with the House for approval.<\/p>\n
J.E. Sahetapy, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic
\nParty of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) acknowledged that some
\nlegislators were negligent and were only forwarding their own
\ninterests instead of those of the public.<\/p>\n
"I don't intend to defend my institution, but, not all
\nlegislators are bad. Some men (and women) are honest and work
\nhard to complete their legislative tasks," he told The Jakarta
\nPost on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
However, Sahetapy suggested that legislators focus on
\ncompleting their main tasks, instead of promoting their self
\ninterests.<\/p>\n
"We still have many bills to complete, which are due at the
\nend of March, when the DPR holds its plenary meeting," he said.<\/p>\n
The bills include the autonomy revision bill, the money
\nlaundering bill, the anticorruption bill and many others, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
What a legislator gets in a month
\n - Basic salary of Rp 4.2 million
\n - Allowances of Rp 7.6 million.
\n - Family assistance of 10 percent of their basic salary, plus two
\npercent of the basic salary for each child for a maximum of two
\nchildren.
\n - Meeting allowance of Rp 300,000 on average per session<\/p>",
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